Murray diffuses spat with Federer

Andy Murray played down an on-court altercation with Roger Federer after beating the Swiss to advance to his third Australian Open final.

The incident occurred in the 12th game of the fourth set when Federer appeared to shout an obscenity at the third seed after believing he had stopped mid-point and was going to challenge a line-call on the baseline. Instead Murray played on and won the point with a forehand winner as Federer came in behind a weak approach.

Asked about it afterwards, Murray claimed "stuff like that happens daily in tennis matches" but would not elaborate on what was said.

It happened at a key juncture with Murray serving for the match. A fired-up Federer promptly broke and won the tie-breaker to take it to a deciding set.

Murray had the final word, though, cruising through the fifth to complete a 6-4 6-7 (5/7) 6-3 6-7 (2/7) 6-2 victory - his first over Federer in a grand slam - in exactly four hours.

"It was very mild in comparison with what happens in other sports. It was just one of those things," said Murray, who will meet defending champion Novak Djokovic in Sunday's final. "There's no hard feelings."

Federer also refused to hype up the incident, saying: "It wasn't a big deal. We just looked at each other one time. That's okay. We were just checking each other out a bit.

"It wasn't a big deal for me and I hope not for him."

The disagreement should not overshadow a performance from Murray which again showed he is now very much the equal of Federer, Djokovic and the currently injured Rafael Nadal.

In the last seven months, the Scot has reached the final of Wimbledon, losing to Federer, taken his revenge to win Olympic gold and also won his first grand slam title at the US Open. And in winning on Friday night, he also became the first Briton to reach three Melbourne finals.